


Son of the Old Forest

by SilverCeleb



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Adventure 2 speculation, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Canon Related, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, F/M, Multi, Platonic Sex, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Rare Pairings, Rare Relationships, Sex Magic, Spoilers, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-07 14:26:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21459526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverCeleb/pseuds/SilverCeleb
Summary: “So, do you want to join? We both favour you”, she asked.“No pressure, no expectations”, Mikkel said simply, steady and sure.Post Adventure 2 speculation, my love letter to one Onni Hotakainen, a study of character dynamics and possible dating cultures of Known World.
Relationships: Onni Hotakainen & Mikkel Madsen, Sigrun Eide & Onni Hotakainen, Sigrun Eide/Mikkel Madsen, Sigrun Eide/Onni Hotakainen/Mikkel Madsen
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	Son of the Old Forest

**Author's Note:**

> Lot's of inspiration was drawn out of traditional Finnish folk music, but then there is some Sibelius also in this, and good old iskelmä, well, really anything Finnish that caught my attention and was composed, written, or recorded before 1990. Metsämiehen laulu, Haltin häät, Nuku nuku nurmilintu, Jääkärimarssi, Täällä pohjantähden alla, Makeasti oravainen.
> 
> Onni/Mikkel/Sigrun is a weird dynamic. So naturally I'm fond of, and wanted to explore it.

_ "I belong to the forest." _

***

In the endless and everlasting embrace of the forest he found himself at home.

Crackling of the campfire is the most comforting sound Onni ever remembers hearing. Second most comforting sound had been his mother singing him, but that one was forever gone and therefore a memory he shied away from.

He curled his fingers around the old kuksa he still had from his father and leaned against the young pine tree. Fire burned through the night and he burned with it.

There could be no sorrow if there was enough rage to forget the rest.

***

The first time she had kissed Mikkel it had been fast and entirely unintentional. It hadn’t even occurred to her that it might give some sort of signal to him, a message entirely different from its intended meaning of “good luck, don’t die”.

Mikkel had taken her aside that evening with a nonchalant gesture and a need for privacy she understood now.

“Look, I won’t pressure you for answers if it was a mistake you’d rather forget, but I still want to ask. Did you kiss me because you like me and want to pursue something, or was that more of a casual thing?” he had asked.

“Pursue something? Psh, if I want to get someone I’ll just challenge them!” she had laughed.

The reply given was so neutral and bland she almost missed how he didn’t quite meet her eyes.

“I see. My mistake, forget I said anything”

He had turned to go, and to this day Sigrun was sure if she had let him return to the camp she would have lost her chance. Luckily captains like her don’t lose fights or chances.

“Hey! Get back here or I’ll put you back on my mutiny list!”

“I wasn’t aware you had taken me out from there”, he replied, turning back and offering her a vary smile.

“I haven’t. Doesn’t mean I can’t put you there again!”

“Mhm.”

She had held his gaze for a moment, smirk stretching her lips as she made sure to check out his body in a very obvious way. Damn it, he was impressive. Why not, then, have a piece of that particular cake?

“You are not entirely terrible. Actually, you do look very decent. Wanna do a challenge with me?” she offered.

They had taken some twenty more minutes of hungry kissing and heavy petting before retreating back to Cattank. She found out that Mikkel was easily able to lift her up against a tree where she could wrap her legs around him. She also found out that he was a great kisser.

And that he wore way too many layers of clothing.

***

Lalli hugged him when the team found him in the woods. It was clumsy and rough, a press of body and limbs that lasted barely enough to count. But it was a hug, and it was from Lalli.

Onni might have cried from relief if he weren’t so angry (terrified).

He has someone to protect with him now, someone who has to make it back. Someone he is not ready to sacrifice to take It down.

***

They survived.

Mikkel stayed awake by the older Hotakainen that night. Sigrun offered to take the watch, but he didn’t think he could sleep even if he wanted to. Lalli was an anxious flutter of barely there presence, dropping by his cousin’s sleeping form every hour or so.

At this point there wasn’t really anything to do, he had changed the bandages covering Onni’s eyes, given him pain medication and antibiotics. It still seemed wrong to leave him to sleep alone, so Mikkel reasoned someone should be up to keep the fire going.

“_...missä äiti on?_”

The sentence came out mumbled and quiet, but it made Mikkel startle a little anyway. Onni was still asleep, but there was a restlessness in him now. Nightmare, then or maybe a fever. Definitely fever, Mikkel decided, since his patient’s face was radiating warmth to his touch.

“_Jukka missä äiti ja isä on?_”

Mikkel gave in and stroked his hand over Onni’s grey hair in a more gentle, caring way.

“Shh, you stupid Finn. It’s ok, you are safe now”

“_...ei, ei Tuuri älä mene! Pelottaa, miksei äiti tule?_”

He had seen men and women die. It wasn’t the first time someone cried for his family in their sleep, feverish and desperate. Mikkel didn’t have to speak Finnish to be able to tell what Onni was saying.

War made adults turn into scared little kids, scared of dark and the very real monsters. It was likely that Onni would survive. By the flickering fire light he looked too young to be out here, but then were they ever old enough?

Mikkel remembered Tuuri telling them her brother had taken care of her and Lalli since they were children. Back then he had been reminded of what it had been like looking after his own siblings, but now he was left to wonder if anyone had looked after Onni himself.

These days everyone was knee deep in the water, so you didn’t stop to help people until they were actually drowning.

It was going to be a rough night for Onni.

***

“Do you think we should challenge him? You like him too, right?”

“No. I do like him, but Finns don’t do platonic challenges. Proposing him like that won’t work. They do have their own proposal rituals but that tends to end with marriage.”

“Blergh! Why are you foreigners so stuffy about sharing pleasure, I want to see you swallow his dick, not to carry his children!”

***

In the end it maybe did cost him too much. They had made it back, limping and bruised, barely alive and not entirely sane, but alive if not well. He had been barely conscious when they had reached the sentinel mage on the edge of his territory, and faded soon after, still unsure if they would end up losing Reynir. Or himself.

He had few memories of their way back, and even less of the days it had taken him to rest and drift in the ocean afterwards. It had taken long before he woke up again, to see the inside of a rusty car and hear the conversation of foreign languages that drifted to him from an open window.

Lalli was by his side first, but after a tense stare he had bolted out the second Onni made to speak. This alerted the rest, and soon he was surrounded by his cousin’s friends. Reynir was seemingly back to his old self, chatting with a speed that was too fast for Onni to care about. Sigrun congratulated him on not dying, and Mikkel warned about the possible complications should he try to get up too soon.

Emil, loud and fumbling, went after Lalli.

At first he had been too weak to even sit up, but by the end of the week he had gotten on his feet. His broken leg would bother his still some time, but according to Mikkel it would heal if he didn’t do anything stupid like try to hunt a kade by himself.

It seemed like someone was still sore about that, multiple someones if he judged by the occasional furious glances the swedish one threw him when Lalli was in a mood. Which was pretty much all the time.

Now that his luonto had made it back to him he had the time to worry about Lalli. His cousin still avoided him and Onni grew more and more anxious. He had done what needed to be done, and given the chance he would leave Lalli behind again. What he might do differently though, would be keeping the truth to himself.

It would take time to earn Lalli’s forgiveness, years even. To get him to trust Onni again, that might never happen again but then his cousin was alive.

Onni was happy with that. Even if he had spend the rest of his life alone he was happy to have Lalli alive and well with Emil. He had to be happy, to make it worth all the sacrifices he had made.

Breaking his leg, losing his eye, almost losing his life were cheap prices to pay for killing a kade. He had planned on dying, after all. Losing his dreamspace, that was harder to accept. He might be able to grow it back, or make a new one. But for now it was gone.

At night he drifted in a sea of stars and listened to the voices of monsters lurking around him.

_ We are lost, we want to swallow you, we will drown you, it’s so cold, I can’t go home. I’m lost. I’m alone, so alone, lonely, lonely, lonely. _

Every night he agreed, and woke up with a scream sealed behind his lips.

*** 

Sigrun had understood the basics of why Mikkel couldn’t give up chasing after that Hotakainen mage person.

There was Lalli to consider, of course, but Sigrun had thought this was actually about Tuuri. While Mikkel wasn’t generally the type to dwell on guilt and what ifs, everyone dealt with the loss of a teammate in their own way. She had reasoned that for Mikkel it must have been some sort of absolution for failing to protect her in the first place.

Still, there was a small detail that had slipped her first. Back in Denmark she had noted how Mikkel was in a better mood after spending some time chatting on the radio, and been increasingly frustrated after all connection had been lost. But then most of them were feeling a bit down after Tuuri had died, so that.

It had occurred to her that Mikkel might actually be into the mage himself.

She hadn’t yet had to form any solid opinion of the guy herself. Sure, it had seemed like he was super dumb and possibly also a mutineer(!), but then so was Mikkel and he had turned out okay. Onni was also a mage, so that had to count for something. And he made art out of cut up trolls.

That sure was something.

But then she had seen the guy fight, had seen him bloody and bruised, teeth bared and rage literally flaming from his person. She had seen magic, power, and most importantly the resolve behind it.

It was super cool and kind of very attractive. Onni was not entirely terrible.

***

In Brúardalur he had caught them unintentionally. This time, he wasn’t so sure.

The first time he had tried to find shelter from a sudden outpour of rain. He had found a barn on the edge of farmland, a small but sturdy thing with grass growing on its roof. The door had been closed but not locked, so he had slipped inside, shaking out his wet coat.

The lantern light had caught his attention first, signaling the presence of someone else in the space. The two bodies tangled together on the pile of hay caught his attention next, and unfortunately or not, held it even after he hastily turned his gaze away.

It hadn’t been hard to recognize Sigrun, startled but not ashamed, looking right at him naked and with a shirtless Mikkels face pressed to her crotch. He hadn’t been fast enough to look away before he had seen her face relax when she recognized him.

It had been a warning sign so huge he had denied even considering what it meant.

“Uh, rain. It was raining. Sorry to interrupt. I can go now. Goodbye,” he had stammered and fled back to the rain.

Neither of them had followed.

Now, well. Sure, they had been quiet, but they were also making out on his bed.

Onni stood frozen on the spot. This time they were at least wearing proper clothing, even if Mikkel had his hands inside Sigrun’s shirt. They both looked up at him with honest desire and very little surprise on their faces.

It was tempting. To take the boon they were offering. Onni had heard of foreigners doing this sometimes, choosing partners to lay with after a successful quest. It even happened at Keuruu often enough, in the military you were often separated from your chosen mate. Onni had gotten some offers himself, and even accepted a few of them, but never from two people at once.

The moment of silence came to its end when Sigrun grew bored.

“So, do you want to join? We both favour you”, she asked.

“No pressure, no expectations”, Mikkel said simply, steady and sure.

It felt like sand poured into a well oiled machine, like tipping over before falling, like a faint spell on a too hot summer day.

“Not now”, Onni had managed, “I need time.”

“Like he said, no pressure. No obligations either, we are not strictly speaking a package deal. Think about it for tonight”, Sigrun smiled.

“You know where to find us”, Mikkel said and stood up with Sigrun.

Onni didn’t say anything, just watched them leave. What in the name of Tapio had made him say that? He should have said no.

He didn’t want to say no.

***

Sigrun still thought that challenging someone was way easier than this “dating” thing that Mikkel had tried to explain her, but apparently he knew at least some things about seducing introverted mages.

Onni certainly wasn’t any blushing milk maiden, but Sigrun suspected the man hadn’t seen any heavy action in a while. He didn't fumble or shy away from touch, but there was certain amount of clumsiness in him.

“Yes, I want what you offer”, he had simply said, with intent.

They had made their way down from the car stack and away from the shores. It had been slow going since Onni still couldn’t use his left leg properly. Mikkel had taken care of practical things like blankets and snacks, and they had made a camp under evergreen pines near a cluster of stones.

Onni was solid and warm, shorter than her and compact in a way Mikkel wasn’t. She explored her new plaything curiously, learning how he liked to be kissed and where he wanted her hands the most.

(It was on his ass.)

***

It took Mikkel embarrassingly long time to realize that the man clinging to him was crying. In his defence Onni had hidden his face from him, and at this point everything was moist and sticky.

Since Sigrun had drifted of promptly, leaving Mikkel to handle this alone, he had some time to consider a suitable approach to the situation.

He could try words. Questions, encouragements, even just gentle nonsense. Or he could try kisses, hugs, maybe pretend he had seen or felt nothing.

“When my brother died at the battle of Kastrup I was on my way back home. I got the news before I made it home, but it was too late” he said instead.

No response came, but he could feel Onni tense beside him. It felt a bit like walking on thin ice but when was he not on thin ice these days?

“Michael was immune. He had a low risk level task focusing on the supply chain management for the fuel we used at our military expeditions. He still died and I miss him. His body is still out there, we weren’t the only ones to leave a family member behind.”

Onni remains silent and unmoving, but the tension in his body shifts, bleeds out. Mikkel takes that as a sign to keep talking.

“Martin doesn’t really remember him, he was too young back then. Mette wasn’t even born yet. My father went to Öresund bridge to look at the names carved in the stone. Maja didn’t speak a word in two weeks.”

“I sometimes dream of him coming back home, telling us that it was a misunderstanding and he had simply been locked into quarantine for too long. I wake up feeling this relief and then I remember he will never come home again.”

“I still think it’s my fault he is dead”, the confession is heavy on his tongue.

This story tastes bitter. He has spoken some of the words he now tells Onni, but not all. This story too is incomplete, it lacks the reasons and whys.

“I still think it should have been me.”

Onni looks at him then, and wipes the liquid from Mikkels face. Neither of them speaks again that night but when they fall asleep, Mikkel hugs Onni back.

***

It takes Onni almost three weeks to ask Sigrun if he can fuck her. She would be more annoyed about this if he weren’t so faen good with his fingers. It must be all that playing he did on his kantele.

Sigrun is sitting on top of him, grinding her ass on his crotch every now and then while he is giving her those magic fingers. Mikkel has Onni's head in his lap, and is stroking his hair and being generally far too patient for anyone's good.

The next time she moans as she grinds down again on that hot, hard, so very nice dick Onni draws in a shaky breath and twitches deliciously.

“Can I, this?” is all Onni manages to get out, but his hands on her hips and the way he raises his hips to meet hers leaves no room for misinterpretation. 

“YES, please and finally. It’s good, I want you too” she pants, already more excited.

“What about this...?” Onni slid his other hand on Sigrun’s stomach, letting his palm rest there.

Fuck pregnancy risk and responsibility. She was riled up and ready to make impulsive decisions.

“Fuck it. I want a dick in me, now. If I get pregnant it’s going to suck balls but I don’t care”, she panted, and ignored a flat stare from Mikkel.

“Wait - you do know that I can very easily make sure that doesn’t happen, right? There is a runo for it.”

Onni seemed genuinely taken aback because of her reaction. His fingers were still moving inside her, but they had slowed to stroke her in an absent way. Sigrun looked up at him and blinked, when she got what he meant.

A way to make her not get pregnant? She might just love Finnish magic. Mikkel hums with a more considering than disbelieving note, so he must be okay with this as well.

“Hell yes!” she exclaimed.

“It was originally a curse so you will need me to undo it later”, Onni tried to warn her but she had been past caring for at least twenty minutes.

“I don’t care, get on with it!” Sigrun insists.

Onni takes away his fingers and places both hands on her stomach. He clears his throat once and closes his eyes.

“ _ Nouse lempi liehumahan, _

_ kunnia kukoistamahan! _

_ Vaan jätä raukka syntymättä, _

_ lapsi vaivainen siittämättä. _

_ Säästä siemen keväämmälle _

_ toiste kanna hedelmälle! _ ”

Onni sings the runo with clear voice. It doesn’t feel much like anything, but there is increasing warmth in her belly. Air around them feels heavier, and as she drags in a breath she catches Mikkel biting his lip.

“Neat. It did feel kind of warm. Can we fuck now? I feel super horny as well!”

***

“I can’t be with you”, Onni tells them both before falling asleep one night.

The stars were clear that night and the forest was as silent as it ever got around them. There was nothing waiting for him back at Keuruu but he still didn’t belong with Sigrun and Mikkel. It was tempting, sure, to try and find a place for him in the connection of love and care they shared.

And he had. Only, that place was not permanent.

“Don’t worry, I knew that”, Sigrun said.

“No pressure, no expectations. You can go when you want to, and you can come back”, Mikkel reminded him.

It should bother him more. They are so obviously in love with each other, that Onni might as well start planning on what to wear to their wedding. He should feel left out or at least a tiny bit jealous.

He falls asleep between them and feels only relief.

***

_ I belong to the forest. But I might take your hand and walk on this field with you, cross these mountains. _

**Author's Note:**

> Terve metsä, terve vuori,  
terve metsän ruhtinas.  
Täss’ on poikas uljas nuori,  
esiin käy hän voimaa täys  
kuin tuima tunturin tuuli.  
(...)  
Metsän poika tahdon olla,  
sankar jylhän kuusiston.  
Tapiolan vainiolla  
karhun kanssa painii käyn,  
ja maailma unholaan jääköön.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IFkPcsRbKs (translation can be found from comments)
> 
> Feel free to leave a comment or kudos! I'll treasure them all.


End file.
